I cover all things luxurious and eye-catching for ForbesLife, with a special interest in designs that are both practical and beautiful--though I wouldn't turn down an exceptional chocolate, nightlife or fragrance story. My background includes writing about interior design for Architizer and working in the editorial department at Good Housekeeping. And when I need a break from reality, I enjoy writing novels.

Can You Judge A Company By Its Homepage?

We’ve always been told not to judge a book by its cover, but shouldn’t we be able to judge a company by its homepage? The homepage layout should guide a user through the site in a certain manner, and its design should reflect the type of experience (i.e. fast, visual, loud, etc.) the company wants its audience to have.

Company websites are getting more and more traffic from individuals who land directly on article pages or other specific pages via search engines, but that certainly does not make the homepage irrelevant. As Forbes Chief Product Officer Lewis DVorkin puts it, “A web site’s home page announces loud and clear who you are and what you believe in.” After browsing different companies’ websites for hours and attempting to evaluate the extent to which homepage designs reflected mission statements, I reached the conclusion that it all boils down to cohesiveness within the company.

This past Thursday I went to a LinkedIn Publisher’s Hackday to which each news media company in attendance brought a small team consisting of editorial staff, product development experts, designers and web developers. The necessity for collaboration among and within these departments became clear to me as I watched Hackday projects go from ideas to plans to outlines to mocks to presentations, within a matter of hours. I realized that this was only made possible by combining representatives with diverse areas of expertise and by practicing strong teamwork.

My Hackday experience got me thinking about the importance of all those “c” words — communication, cooperation and collaboration. Too much separation between the denim-wearing techies and the suited executives will lead to a fragmented brand. The product development team and web designers must be on the same page as the editorial staff and CEOs. The first step to avoiding inconsistency among departments is making certain that all employees have the same understanding of the brand’s mission and the experience it strives to give its audience.

In some cases, a company may not want its website to be exactly in line with its other products. For example, a journalism company may choose to provide its online audience with shorter reads and a quicker experience than they might find in a print product. In such instances, communication among departments makes for smoother branding and a unified message.

Let’s take a look at some publishing companies’ homepages and see where they hit or miss the marks (feel free to comment if you agree or disagree with my opinions).

Here’s a statement from this UK-based newspaper’s About Us page: “We provide a broad range of essential services to the growing audience of internationally minded business people.” On the homepage, their global focus is immediately apparent and business-related words such as “markets,” “companies” and “jobs,” are all over the place — hitting the mark on that one. Managing Director Rob Grimshaw also stresses that FT is focused on increasing its number of online subscribers. Because these members pay to access all stories and content, FT strives to give them the best possible experience. Having fewer ads (because they can afford to do so as a result of the subscription model) on the homepage is one example of this goal in action.

The company defines itself as a source for “breaking news and opinion.” Given the large top stack on the homepage with the latest news stories, and the variety of blogs and articles, it’s hard to argue that the page doesn’t follow through. Because HP relies entirely on its online presence, the website must be meaty enough to gain traction without a complementary print product. This month Ariana Huffington stated that one of her goals for the online newspaper is to, “create the most social video experience possible.” HuffPost Live, a streaming network, isn’t set to launch until mid August, but their concentration on social media comes across on the homepage already. Icons and options that encourage sharing are extremely prominent all over the page.

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Comments

I am glad that people get on sites like these and comment on these types of articles, which tend to be controversial and very challenging for all following the discussions. Our company builds websites and needs a strong team of marketers that can help out our client base.

It is hard to see small business owners spending their hard earned money building a website that will often sit in space and never become an active investment for them, because of SEO companies that lack full understanding regarding the discussed in this article. I have a great team of guys who work to provide SEO services for our clients, but I do agree with the article, in that people connect with real people and real time information. This being said we like to read new things, be inspired to further learn, and get a quick answer when we need one. None of us like stagnate water…:-)

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Although we all grow at different rates in our personal and business life, growth is best done with key individuals around you. For example…It would have been nice if someone could have shared the implications of building a flash website before Apple decided not to enable flash (Adobe) on their mobile devices. LOL!!

Just saying…There is power in Unity..

I really believe that the rules of the game for SEO are changing and on the other hand there are a lot of variables that we have no way of identifying, so in the mean time if anyone would like to connect with us to further small and midsize businesses in their efforts to compete online, by all means send me their/your information.

Thank you and again I am grateful for everyone’s time and input, it really helps me learn and helps me to teach our team the different vantage points out there. :-)